I have always held this view that SaaS is the single most effective tool that can enable a company to combat global piracy. However, it requires time to manifest DaaS globally, because it is also in the interest of a company that a consumer does not lose their entire workstation on account of a communication outage. Once, networks become a bit more reliable and redundancy is increased, then it's DaaS all the way.

The current generation of game consoles are a good example here, both the Xbox One and PS4 use the Cloud to authenticate users and can even provide hardware resources -- Cloud Gaming. If I recall correctly, the only reason that stopped Microsoft from making the Xbox One completely Cloud base was because they were worried that some gamers on a submarine would not be able to play video games without internet access.

One concern could that if the OS of desktops goes down the path of Mobile operating systems, Android, etc is free (at least on the surface), and if this happens then the entire billing model changes and it will also change the objectives.

OK, so how would SaaS prevent pirating copies of Win 7 or Win server? Are you talking about virtual desktops in the cloud? Or is this just about people using MS Office illegally?

With SaaS, seems like you still have the rent versus buy problem. Yearly user subscriptions are never going to be as cost effective as buying it and using indefinitely. At least at certain scale anyway. Or unless you actually buy new versions of software every 2-3 years when vendors make new releases. How many businesses (or people) actually do that?

@Gary_EL - Because of cloud models, Internet redundancy and HA is becoming increasingly important. This type of architecture was once thought of as only being necessary in enterprise-class networks...but now even SMB's are finding it necessary.

Hi Lorna - You have a point about SaaS simply locking in customers within the cloud. But I see this tactic eroding as well. As cloud services evolve, customers are not only looking for ease into the cloud, but also ease out of the cloud.

A win for the user, organization or individual, because there is no longer a need to maintain the software itself. A win for the software producer/vender, because piracy is largely eliminated. The only problem is that when internet access is down, no work can be done until it's back up.

The pirating angle is interesting, but isn't it disingenuous to suggest that SaaS will limit or end the practice of vendor lock-in? Sure, maybe the lock won't be proprietary hardware or software. But once you have a few years' worth of data with that SaaS vendor, moving will be a messy, expensive business, if it's even feasible.

Our latest survey shows growing demand, fixed budgets, and good reason why resellers and vendors must fight to remain relevant. One thing's for sure: The data center is poised for a wild ride, and no one wants to be left behind.